Library › Greek: Philosophy › Testimonia
These testimonia gather what ancient writers report about Brontinus, an early Pythagorean of Metapontum (some sources say Croton) of the late sixth or early fifth century BC. No genuine writings survive. Iamblichus and Diogenes Laertius name him as the husband or father of Theano, Pythagoras's wife or pupil; Alcmaeon of Croton addressed his book to him; and the Suda and Clement of Alexandria ascribe Orphic poems to him, among them the Robe.
The passages show how little is securely known of the first Pythagoreans and how their names gathered family ties, dedications and later writings. They help explain why treatises such as On Mind and Thought were later composed under Brontinus's name, and they touch the links between Pythagorean and Orphic circles.
About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 17 A 1–5). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).